Update my dinner status, I'm making this tonight.
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Servings: 16 Servings
Total Time (median): 2 : 00 Active Time: 0 : 30
US/Metric: [convert to metric]
Ingredients
Preparation
Combine the first 3 ingredients. Press into the bottom of a sprayed 9" spring form pan, then bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes.
Combine the next 4 ingredients (cranberries through orange zest) in a non-reactive saucepan, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes. Cool.
Beat the cream cheeses until fluffy in a food processor. Beat in the remaining ingredients. Fold in 1/3 cup of the cranberry mixture by hand, then pour into the prepared crust. Bake for 50 minutes. Turn off the oven, let the cake sit for 30 minutes. Cool completely. Top with the remaining cranberry mixture.
If you are sympathetic to the idea that one of the heaviest burdens in all of life is unlimited potential, then pity the poor cranberry. Introduced almost three hundred years ago to the founding Pilgrims by their indigenous neighbors, this bright red denizen of the bogs is still trying to get legs. In spite of its high nutritive value (more vitamin C than orange juice, more iron than prunes), gorgeous crimson color and clean, spirited flavor, the cranberry still suffers the abuse of under use. As juice, it is often mixed with more "popular" flavors, like apple or raspberry, to give it more "marketability". And as a berry, it has been relegated almost exclusively to the role of the obligatory afterthought at the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, shunted to the perimeter of the plate, a tiny beacon soon buried under an avalanche of potatoes, turkey and dressing. Six months later a glass jar, half full of the stuff, still sits in the refrigerator. And this is a shame, because it makes wonderful baked goods (give us cranberry nut bread anytime and keep your more popular banana), scintillating sauces, a remarkable sherbet, and, we think, the very best cheesecake.
